2013 Tour of California Winners and Losers

In some ways, North America’s first premier stage race of 2013 turned out as expected: Peter Sagan won two stages; Jens Voigt went on the attack. Let’s take a look at some of the more surprising performances, from the impressive to the disappointing.

WINNERS

Tejay van Garderen (BMC)
Years from now, we will all be able to say that we witnessed the transformation of Tejay van Garderen into a rider capable of winning the Tour de France at the 2013 Tour of California. While there were no questions about the young American’s talent heading into the ATOC, there were several as to whether the BMC rider had the mental make-up necessary to win stage races at the sport’s highest level.

Van Garderen silenced his critics this past week, first by riding within himself at the end of Stage 2, then having the tactical awareness to make the break in the crosswinds of Stage 5. He then dominated the individual time trial to win Stage 6, and lastly relied on the depth of his team to defend his jersey on Mt. Diablo in Stage 7. Each day presented van Garderen with a new challenge, and on every occasion he came through with flying colors. The lessons he learned will undoubtedly help him in the Tour de France this July, where he will enter the race as a true contender.

Janier Acevedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman)
Acevedo’s name first came on the radar when he won a stage at the 2011 Tour of Utah https://www.bicycling.com/news/pro-cycling/2013-tour-utah-host-cities-announced while riding for a regional Colombian professional team. And while his compatriot, Sergio Henao, parlayed his own success in Utah into a WorldTour contract with Team Sky, Acevedo was unable to move into the sport’s highest tier. But now, after winning what was perhaps the most difficult stage of the eight-day event, wearing the yellow jersey for three days, and then using aggressive tactics to climb his way back onto the final podium, the Jamis-Hagens Bermans rider might find himself riding for a team with larger aspirations next year.

Carter Jones (Bissell)
Bissell’s Carter Jones is another rider who could turn a terrific ride at the ATOC into a contract with a bigger squad next season. The 24-year-old was one of the most aggressive riders of the Tour, spending three days on the attack in order to win the polka dot jersey as the event’s King of the Mountains. Jones’s resume already boasts several Best Young Rider titles in some prestigious North American events. The former Bontrager-Livestrong rider’s performance last week certainly caught the eye of at least one of the event’s international squads.

Leopold Konig (NetApp-Endura)
Speaking of climbers, NetApp-Endura’s Leopold Konig salvaged his team’s Tour of California with a fantastic stage win atop Mt. Diablo. The 25-year-old from the Czech Republic seems to like racing in the US, as evidenced by his win Saturday and his third-place finish in last year’s Tour of Utah. An underrated rider who also won a stage at the 2012 Tour of Britain, Konig is another rider who could turn his ATOC performance into a bigger contract in 2014.

RadioShack-Leopard
After the last-minute announcement that Chris Horner would not be racing, many thought that RadioShack-Leopard would be rudderless at this year’s ATOC. Luckily, Jens Voigt, Matthew Busche, and yes, Andy Schleck, had other plans. The team’s highlight had to be Stage 5, when Voigt and Busche hit the front with more than an hour left to race and took advantage of the fierce crosswinds to break the peloton into echelons. In one race-defining move, the two torpedoed the overall chances of several riders while putting Busche in position for a top-5 finish overall. Voigt then escaped to take a solo stage win, a terrific victory for the fan favorite.

As for Schleck, it’s now clear that he has finally overcome the problems that have plagued him since the beginning of last season. The Luxembourger rode well all week, covering moves and making an appearance in the day’s long breakaway during Stage 7. Expect him to head to one more pre-Tour training camp before putting the final touches on his fitness at either the Criterium du Dauphine or the Tour of Switzerland. If all goes as planned, Schleck will once again be a top contender at the French Grand Tour.

Bontrager Cycling Team
For the second year in a row, a rider from the Bontrager Cycling Team won the white jersey as Best Young Rider at the ATOC. In managing a team whose average age prevents many of its riders from celebrating with champagne, Axel Merckx and his staff certainly have a knack for identifying and developing young talent. This year, Lawson Craddock of Austin, Texas, led the way, taking the white jersey at the end of Stage 2 and defending it bravely over the next six days. Thanks to performances like last week’s, look for Craddock and several of his teammates—Jasper Stuyven, Gavin Mannion, and Nathan Brown come to mind—to join Bontrager alums Joe Dombrowksi and Ian Boswell in the WorldTour next year.

Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp)
By winning Stage 4, Farrar nabbed his first victory of the season against at least one of the sprinters he can expect to see at the Tour de France. Farrar’s win was the highlight of the race for his Garmin-Sharp squad, and a needed confidence boost for the American sprinter in his final preparation for the Tour.

Omega Pharma–Quick-Step & Orica-GreenEdge
After one of the coldest winters in recent memory, several of the ATOC’s European-based WorldTour squads struggled to adapt to the heat of Southern California. Omega Pharma–Quick-Step and Orica-GreenEdge were hit the hardest. Each squad lost two riders by the end of Stage 2 and neither team won a stage—despite bringing talented rosters to the eight-day event. This is the second year in a row that both teams failed to win a stage in California, and one has to wonder if their respective bike sponsors (Specialized and Scott) will be able to convince them to make the trip in 2014.

UnitedHealthcare & Champion System
Out of the three Professional Continental teams in the 2013 ATOC, neither UnitedHealthcare nor Champion System proved able to make a big impact. UnitedHealthcare’s performance was the most disappointing. The American squad came into the event with high hopes for men like Philip Deignan, Marc De Maar, and Lucas Euser, but failed to capitalize on Deignan’s third-place finish in Stage 2 by missing the move in the crosswinds of Stage 5.

Champion System raced aggressively all week, but went home with little show for their efforts—their best overall finisher was Chad Beyer (21st) and they failed to win a stage or any of the Tour’s jersey competitions.

David Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) & Amber Neben (Pasta Zara-Cogeas)
This year’s individual time trial will perhaps go down as the most difficult in Tour of California history as two climbs, a technical descent, and swirling winds created a challenging mix of variables for the competitors to take into account. Unfortunately, two riders suffered more than their peers.

First, David Zabriskie crashed during his warm-up Friday morning, suffering a broken clavicle that will prevent him from defending his national time trial title in Chattanooga, Tennessee this weekend. Neben crashed in a similar fashion after taking a corner with too much speed and hitting an embankment before slamming into the asphalt. The 38-year-old American broke her hip, some ribs, and suffered severe bruising as a result of the fall, ending her national championship bid as well.

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